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Soldering single cored copper wire to enameled copper wire

You have just taught yourself that a joint to be soldered must be mechanically sound before you solder it and learned to melt the solder on the joint not the iron. This probably puts you ahead of most 1sy year EEE students for practical construction ;-)

Personally, unless I was working with *VERY* short ends (repair work only - which I'd loop as you did), I'd tin the wire ends with solder for solid wire (don't tin stranded) and twist them firmly together in line (NOT in a Y) in a Western Union splice before soldering.

If it's good enough for NASA . . .

For heavier wires, lay the ends parallel in opposite directions and bind tightly in a single layer with fine tinned solid copper wire (eg fine fusewire) before soldering.

Dont forget to put any heatshrink sleeving required over the wire before jointing it. You may need to heatsink the wire using pliers with a rubber band round the handles next to the joint to avoid melting the insulation or prematurely shrinking the heatshrink.

--
Ian Malcolm.   London, ENGLAND.  (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
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Reply to
IanM
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:On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:39:32 -0400, Phil Hobbs : wrote: : :>Jessie wrote: :>> :>> George Herold wrote: :>>> On Oct 1, 7:49 pm, Rich Grise wrote: :>>>> On Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:41:56 -0700, Jessie wrote: :>>>>> How do you do this? I'm using lead free solder. Both wires have a :>>>>> diameter of about 0.8mm. It doesn't seem to stick and even if I have :>>>>> the solder in an "O" around either end, I can still pull the wires :>>>>> apart. :>>>> Make sure you strip all of the enamel off the magnet wire. :>>>>

:>>>> Then use real solder with real flux. :>>>>

:>>>> Have Fun! :>>>> Rich :>>> Dang, how to solder two wires together has got to be a :>>> sci.electronics.basic question. :>>>

:>>> George h. :>> :>> 'tis not funny! :) I've soldered other wires before but for thick :>> single cored copper (stripped insulation) and enameled ones the solder :>> just doesn't stick. :>> :>> I tried stripping the enamel off the wire by using the serrations of a :>> needle nose plier, but I'll try using an emery board on the ends and :>> see what happens. :>> :>> Jessie xx :>

:>Try a Bic lighter followed by scraping off the mess. Formvar (you can't :>get real enamel any more) is very tough stuff, roughly like nylon :>fishing line. :>

:>Cheers :>

:>Phil Hobbs : :I can't remember what it was called now, but there used to be some :vile chemical in a little bottle with a brush that would take Formvar :coating off in 30 seconds... also your skin if you touched it ;-) : :Very useful if your transformers used Litz wire. : : ...Jim Thompson

That chemical would most likely be Methylene Chloride. This is the major component in Selleys Kwik Strip paint stripper, which is why I suggested it.

MSDS

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While the OP might not be able to buy Selleys Kwik Strip where he is I am sure there are other brands available with a similar chemistry.

Reply to
Ross Herbert

You can buy it in the electronics industry in a small bottle of about 4 to 6 cc. Jeez. Call MWS or other wire maker and ask them what the industry uses.

If the real thing is available, why waste personal time going out of your way to use a "suitable substitute"?

I really think you guys do this too much.

Burning it off works. Bare copper is required to make soldering work. That is a basic rule.

Reply to
Archimedes' Lever

:On Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:59:36 GMT, Ross Herbert :wrote: : :>

:>That chemical would most likely be Methylene Chloride. This is the major :>component in Selleys Kwik Strip paint stripper, which is why I suggested it. :>

:>MSDS :>

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:>

:>While the OP might not be able to buy Selleys Kwik Strip where he is I am sure :>there are other brands available with a similar chemistry. : : You can buy it in the electronics industry in a small bottle of about 4 :to 6 cc. Jeez. Call MWS or other wire maker and ask them what the :industry uses.

You are virtually arguing against your own claim of keeping it cheap and simple here. Sure, you can buy small quantity of Methylene Chloride but only from specialist chemical suppliers "in the electronics industry". That is not exactly the most readily available to the common person. On the other hand, you can buy paint stripper at any hardware store. : : If the real thing is available, why waste personal time going out of :your way to use a "suitable substitute"?

You will be wasting far more time trying to buy 6cc of MC from a specialist supplier than going to your local hardware. Why muck around with 6cc when you can buy a whole can which is 60% MC and which can be used for another purpose as well, ie. paint stripping.

: : I really think you guys do this too much.

What, finding a cheap, simple, non-abrasive and clean method of getting enamel insulation of wiring? : : Burning it off works. Bare copper is required to make soldering work. :That is a basic rule.

Yeah but it's a crap method which is messy and far more labour intensive.

Here you are talking about "burning" off enamel (or polyamide or other synthetic) insulation from copper wire which then has to be cleaned up using other methods to get the carbonised crap off created by burning. That certainly doesn't make for basic cheap and simple in my view. Paint stripper... fast, clean and simple... ready to solder after wiping the residue off with a tissue.

I would hate to be around you when trying to solve a problem...

Reply to
Ross Herbert

And to a minor lesser extent here.

Here.

Wonderful. You figured out some of the basics of soldering via direct experience.

Reply to
JosephKK

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